The industry of organizing and operating trade show events is complicated by common concerns that patrons have for protecting their wares from being stolen. Typically, a trade show booth has walls or partitions on all but one of its sides. The side that is left open is used to maximize the presentation area for potential viewers during the trade show. While this opening is particularly useful during trade show hours, it can present a problem during the off hours.
During the off hours of a show, it is convenient and efficient for booth operators to keep their products and wares in the booths to avoid losing the time required set up for each day of the show. However, this practice poses certain risks. For example, due to the open nature of the booth, there is little to no protection for the products or wares from being stolen.
One solution to this problem has been to restrict entry to the trade show venue. However, restricting entry will not prevent those who need to and/or have clearance to enter from stealing merchandise from a patron's booth. Moreover, hiring security guards to protect each booth is not economical.
Previous devices have attempted to resolve the aforementioned problems and provide a secure enclosure in the context of trade show booths. For example, partition systems taught by Hegg et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,021,973), Gassier (U.S. Pat. No. 4,388,786), Jones (U.S. Pat. No. 4,493,172), and Izatt et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,816,000) could not adequately serve this purpose. While they generally teach partition systems that may be used to construct discrete spaces for use as office dividers or convention exhibition booths, these systems are not designed to provide removable openings that satisfy the needs of trade show booth operators during off hours. In short, they lack a design for coverage of spacious openings while simultaneously promoting easy installation, removal and compact storage.
One effective device for securing trade show booths is taught by Toledo (U.S. Pat. No. 7,610,727), which resolves a number of the deficiencies of the prior art by providing a booth enclosure apparatus that is simple to install and remove. However, given the nature of trade show booths and the support structures used to build them, as well as the increased demand to provide a fastener that is easier to handle and use, there has been a need to create an updated apparatus for securing a trade show booth.